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“Afrofuturism as Creative Empowerment” by Ytasha Womack

Feminist Technics, Queer Machines: Inventing Better Futures was a day-long conference hosted by IGSF in November 2014 as a part of the HTMlles 11: Zer0 Future Festival. The HTMlles is an international platform dedicated to the presentation of women’s, trans and gender non-conforming artists’ independent media artworks in a transdisciplinary environment that strives for anti-oppression. The keynote speaker for the conference was Ytasha Womack. Here, she is introduced by Sophie Le-Phat Ho from HTMlles. After her presentation, tobias c. van Veen facilitates a conversation about her current and future projects.

The first time she became aware of their existence, she was sitting at a bus stop reading the local alt newspaper, the City Paper, while waiting for the L2 to take her to Van Ness Metro. It “felt” like a pair of eyes looking at her thoughts.

No voices, no face. Just eyes.

Red eyes.

The pair of eyes blinked as it “watched” for her stream of words, thoughts, and images to flow back and forth like her bloodstream across her brain. Then it seemed that an audience of watchers was viewing her thoughts like it was a movie. She felt as though a crowd of people were picking through her mind, picking through memories, stray ideas. Her spirit guide whispered one word to her late one night before she fell asleep: thief. She dreamed of burning piles of paper and dry leaves swirling up before her in a pillar of smoke and ash. She jumped up and shook her head, murmuring the word, repeatedly, her hands clenching and straining.

Her spirit guide whispered one more word before falling silent: impulse. She felt herself breathing slower, more deliberate, as if with purpose and intention. She closed her eyes and “erased” the unfinished sentences, fragments of memory, and pictures that could be retrieved by the watchers. A blank screen and static remained. The audience of eyes faded.